{"id":266,"date":"2021-12-12T02:09:16","date_gmt":"2021-12-12T02:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/balid.org.uk\/blog\/?p=266"},"modified":"2025-07-15T18:03:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T18:03:09","slug":"adult-literacy-to-learn-or-not-to-learn-that-is-the-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/balid.org.uk\/blog\/2021\/12\/12\/adult-literacy-to-learn-or-not-to-learn-that-is-the-question\/","title":{"rendered":"ADULT LITERACY \u2013 TO LEARN OR NOT TO LEARN? That is the question"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alan Rogers<\/strong><\/p>\n

BALID President<\/p>\n

When talking about adult literacy, we almost always talk about people who are non-literate or have difficulty with literacy as having to learn<\/strong> literacy. \u00a0This is the default mode for adult literacy for most people. We can see this when we look at the illustrations chosen for almost any report on adult literacy (including some BALID reports):\u00a0 they almost always consist of one or more adults learning <\/em>literacy rather than people using<\/em> literacy in their everyday lives.<\/p>\n

But this may be the wrong way to think of literacy for two reasons:\u00a0 a) it assumes that the \u2018learner\u2019 does not know or is not able!\u00a0 It is a deficit approach \u2013 and if there is one thing the \u2018literacy as social practice\u2019 view has taught us is that everyone \u2013 including the non-literate \u2013 do know <\/strong>a good deal about literacy (they have experienced it, often for many years) and most of them are able to cope with literacy activities in one way or another.\u00a0 To deny all this experience,\u00a0 all these capabilities is to demean the people we work with;\u00a0 they are worthy of much better treatment than that.\u00a0 And b) it suggests that we need to \u2018teach\u2019 them, using \u2018teaching-learning materials\u2019 (which some programmes base on what they believe are the everyday literacy activities of the \u2018learners\u2019). \u00a0\u00a0Such situations call for a very unequal relationship\u00a0 of \u2018teacher\u2019,\u00a0 the knowing and the capable, and \u2018adult learner\u2019,\u00a0 the not-knower and the not-able.<\/p>\n

\"\"
A woman who participated in a women’s business skills literacy programme in Ghana celebrates the first year of selling her own produce directly in local community markets. All the women kept their own records and managed their own money. (c) Katy Newell-Jons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And such an approach is unnecessary, for there is a much better way easily available.\u00a0 And that is to rephrase the aim to read simply \u00a0How can we help<\/strong> them with their literacy? <\/em>\u00a0Not \u2018teach\u2019, just \u2018help\u2019 in any way we can.\u00a0 But notice \u2013 it is not to help them with literacy but with their<\/strong> literacy \u2013 and that is key.\u00a0 Not to help them learn a generic literacy but to help them day by day with the daily tasks they are dealing with or wish to deal with.<\/p>\n

There are two well-tested models we can build on to implement this.\u00a0 The first is old \u2013 Laubach\u2019s \u2018Each One Teach One\u2019 \u2013 but rephrased as \u2018Each One Help One\u2019.\u00a0 Why not get an army of volunteers to adopt one or more adult with literacy aspirations (volunteers are the \u2018in-thing\u2019 at the moment), \u00a0\u00a0simply to sit down, one by one and help.<\/strong>\u00a0 The importance of this approach is that the so-called literacy \u2018learner\u2019 will feel they make much more progress than if they sit in a class being taught something which the teacher or the programme feel they should learn.<\/p>\n

The second is more modern but more widespread and that is the extension model.\u00a0 In this, someone who has experience joins up with one or more adults to help them with their tasks,\u00a0 to share their different experiences.\u00a0 They do not treat them as ignorant and inexperienced \u2013 they explore what knowledge and experience they already possess, and they explore what are the existing practices and aspirations of the adult participants.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Engaging in literacy tasks together<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The two most complete models are farming extension workers who go<\/strong> to the farmers (they do not always expect the farmers to come to them as to a literacy class) and help them with their <\/strong>farming,\u00a0 not just to learn the extension worker\u2019s farming techniques. The agricultural extension worker does not start by saying, \u2018You cannot farm;\u00a0 I will teach you\u2019;\u00a0 rather, they acknowledge the farmers have been farming for many years (even generations) and have built up a good deal of experience of what works in their situation. The extension worker learns much from the farmers.\u00a0 The other model is that of the health and nutrition extension workers \u2013 who again go to the adults (mostly women) and share knowledge.\u00a0 At their best, they realise the participants have been engaging in food and health practices for many years and know what works and what does not work. They explore what are the existing health and food practices (in context \u2013 i.e. what is available and what the participants can afford\u00a0 etc) and humbly suggest there may be viable alternatives.\u00a0 Both approaches take into account local customs and preferences, even if these are not always scientifically justified;\u00a0 they share<\/strong> different approaches.<\/p>\n

So what about a literacy extension programme? All that is required is to help every adult literacy facilitator to change their ideas from being a teacher to being a personal helper \u2013 an extension worker.<\/p>\n

It may seem strange that I \u2013 who have for years been researching and teaching about adult learning \u2013 should say that we should stop talking about learning and teaching and instead talk about helping. \u00a0But let me assure you that, if you really sit beside someone and with their willing assent help them with their tasks (like helping a child with their homework), the adult will learn much more than if you try to teach them. \u00a0It is a very simple change to make but it starts with us, not with the facilitator or the \u2018learners\u2019.\u00a0 No more \u2018teaching\u2019, just helping. \u00a0And helping people with their tasks is so much more rewarding than teaching them something we think they should learn. At least, it is worth a try.<\/p>\n

——–<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/em><\/p>\n

Alan Rogers<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0is a Visiting Professor in the School of Education and Lifelong Learning at the University of East Anglia.\u00a0 He is engaged in a number of studies of adult literacy programmes in Africa and south Asia in association with academics in a number of universities.\u00a0 His studies with others of adult literacy facilitators in various countries continues, and he is co-editing a volume adult education and social change in the UK .<\/em>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alan Rogers BALID President When talking about adult literacy, we almost always talk about people who are non-literate or have difficulty with literacy as having to learn literacy. \u00a0This is the default mode for adult literacy for most people. We can see this when we look at the illustrations chosen for almost any report on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/balid.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/balid.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/balid.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balid.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balid.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/balid.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":280,"href":"https:\/\/balid.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266\/revisions\/280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/balid.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balid.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balid.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}